April t, 1895] THE TROPIC \L AGRICULTURIST. 673 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE N.-W. 
PROVINCE. 
North of the Mahaoya, 13th March. 
Weather very hot as is to be expected at this 
time of the year. A good shower fell in this neigh- 
bourhood on the 24th of last month, but none since, 
though farther north pretty heavy local showers 
fell last week. The natives have been busy reaping 
their paddy crop which is fairly good where there 
was sutficient water, but where this element was 
deficient, very miserable. In the Katugampola Meda- 
pattua a large number of 
CHEENA CLEARINGS 
have been burnt off for sowing with grain and manioc. 
In the same quarter I learn that over 1,000 acres 
will be put under coconuts this year. The con- 
tinued steady rise in the 
VALUE OF COCONUTS 
is a mystery to me. Can any of your correspondents 
enlighten my ignorance ? I fancy some of the merchants 
who deal largely in oil could do so if they chose to. 
Is oil really tne cause of the rise in price ? Has the 
price of oil risen so much in the .English, American 
and continental markets, as to account for the en- 
hanced price of coconuts ? and if it is so, what has 
caused the rise in the price of oil ? and is the cause 
such as to justify one in believing that it will continue 
to operate for some time ? If oil is not the cause of 
the rise in the value of coconuts then what is ? The 
local demand for the Desiccating Mills and exchange 
are insufficient to account for it, though the drought 
of last year will no doubt help to keep up prices 
all through this year. Owners of 
COCONUT LANDS 
for sale seem to me to base their valuation of their 
properties upon the present ruling high price of coco- 
nuts, as though this was to continue with certainty 
for a long time to come. We know that up 
to 1890 the average price of nuts was about 
R30 per 100, and what grounds have we 
for thinking that they may not at any time fall to 
that rate ? To me it seems that unless there are 
substantial grounds for believing that the present high 
rates will continue for at least 10 years to come it 
would be very unsafe for any one wishing to buy 
coconut lands to base his valuation upon present 
prices of coconuts. Any information, therefore, that 
will throw light upon this question of the cause of 
the steady advance in the price of coconuts for the 
past four years, will, I feel sure, be welcome to many 
others as well as to. — Yours truly, Puzzled. 
1 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA ■ 
NYASS ALAND. 
AN UNFAVOURABLE ACCOUNT BY A CEYLON 
PLANTER. 
[I send you some extracts from letter received 
from Mr. a few days ago. I am sorry to say 
he has been very seriously ill at Durban since he 
arrived there with fever he got while in Nyassa- 
land. — TjOiccountry Planter.) 
At Chindi' I got on board the sternwheel steamer 
" Bera " with four other passengers, nice fellows, 
Government officials, and off we went up a muddy 
winding river between low banks and dead flat coun- 
try on either side. Nothing of any interest except 
shooting hippopotami and crocodiles of which there 
are lots, and I accounted for two hippos myself. 
But the beasts are unsatisfactory shooting as they 
sink at once and don't couie up for several hours 
after they are dead. The second day of the river 
my fellow passengers produced their medicine 
chests and began literally to eat medicine, and 
the third day two of theia had sharp attacks of 
fever, and henceforward for the rest of my travels 
the talk was always fever : — or so-and-so is dead with 
it, an so-and-so lias got it. It is the ever-present curse 
of the country and is just aa bad on the hills as 
tho plains. 
I asked the doctors of H. M. Gunboats what their 
mortality was (where, of course, men have skilled 
medical attendance and every luxury,) and they told 
me 8 per cent deaths and 15 per cent to 20 per cent 
invalided home. I really believe the deaths airongst 
the general population is more like 20 per cent. It 
is a country of sudden death. 
Well we steamed up seven days and then the river 
was so shallow the steamer could go no farther, 
and we had to get into little house boats each big 
enough for two and we poled up the river to our 
destination. This took S or 9 days more and 
as we had glorious weather and full moon I 
rather enjoyed it. We started at six after cocoa, 
poled up the river till eleven, then landed and cooked 
breakfast and then poled on till 5 p.m., when we 
tied up at some village, took possession of two or 
three of the best huts, rigged up our beds and 
mosquito nettings, and then at seven had a good 
dinner and sat ■ round the camp fire smoking and 
jawing. Well at last I reached Katunga and was 
carried up the hill to Blantyre in a " nachilla " i.e. 
hammock slung on a pole, not at all bad travelling 
I if you've a lot of pillows. Of course all the niggers 
| here are utter savages and dance round you with 
I spears and arrows etc. After a long day's journey 
I reached Blantyre, the land there being very like 
the Wilson Bungalow patanas (the flatter part of 
them). 
I passed by the African Lakes Stores and got to 
their Boarding-house, kept »p for their passengers, 
and there I found a very pleasan Scotchman in 
charge with an exceedingly nice cheerful little wife. 
There were also a couple of officers up shooting 
and one or two other nice fellows, and here I stopped 
a fortnight, going out to places and looking at the 
coffee. The soil struck me as poor, a certain amount 
of surface soil, but under a hard-looking subsoil. The 
coffee seems to give a good maiden crop and second 
crop. The next- crop falls off very much, then every- 
body cuts the trees down, and let them send up a fresh 
sucker. Queer, according to the Ceylon ideas ! 
I was not favourably impressed with the coffee 
prospects. Labour certainly is very cheap, but is 
rising rapidly and is already difficult to pro- 
cure and causing great anxiety to planters. 
It never stops more than six months, and then goes 
back to its village, and the planter has to train 
another lot — savages, mind you, of the most uta- 
intellectual type. 
One estate I came across where the Manager was 
in tears almost, and had not one single cooly on the 
place, and in despair told me that he meant to offer 
double the current rate of pay in order to get labour. 
This must force the rate of pay up. Above all the 
place is deadly, and any man who goes there gambles 
with death. I have seen enough of savagedom. I 
have travelled down the river with a nice naval 
officer. The river had risen, so the steamer came 
right up. There was a strong young Scotch engineer 
on board who came out of his cabin one morning 
and said he felt feverish. We did all we could 
for him, poor fellow, and buried him on the banks 
of the river next day. Pretty sharp work. 
AMSTERDAM DRUG-MARKET. 
Our Amsterdam correspondent writing on Feb. 
21st, states that the 751,822 kilos of Java cinchona 
bark (8,1S8 bales and 437 cases) to be offered for 
sale by auction on February 28th are divided as 
follows : — 27,920 kilos pharmaceutical bark contain- 
ing 799 kilos quinine ; 723.402 kilos manufacturing 
Lurk, containing 35,016 kilos quinine, the average of 
the manufacturing barks being 4-S5 per cent. Gum 
benzoin : Sumatra very firm ; 225 boxes have found 
ready buyers at from 70c to 110c per half-kilo, ac- 
cording to quality. A further arrival of 120 boxes 
is expected. Fine hard Copal gum is in good demand, 
and there has also been an improved inquiry for 
soft varieties ; there will probably be a public sale 
next month. Damar gum exceedingly firm ; fine 
Batavia (in second hand) is quoted at 47c to 48c. 
On February 19th about 14.000 kilos Padaug gum 
sold at very high prices — 54c for fine descriptions. 
